New Marker Could Make Preclinical Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Possible
New Marker Could Make Preclinical Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Possible Results of a new study using diffusion tensor imaging point to the possibility of using hippocampal changes as a neuroradiologic marker of future cognitive decline. Researchers report that mean hippocampal diffusivity — a measure often used to look at pathological changes in white and gray matter [...]
Software Developed That Analyzes MR Images to Diagnose Alzheimer’s
Researchers have developed software to analyze MRI studies of the brain that could allow diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and of mild cognitive impairment, a lesser form of dementia that precedes the development of Alzheimer’s by several years. The research team show how their software program can accurately differentiate patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s from [...]
Alzheimer’s Drugs Associated With Fainting and Slow Heart Rate
According to a population-based cohort study, use of cholinesterase inhibitors is associated with increased rates of syncope (loss of consciousness or fainting), bradycardia (slow heart rate), pacemaker insertion, and hip fracture in older adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s has become a major public health problem around the world due to its increasing prevalence, long [...]
Researchers Develop Risk Index Tool to Help Predict Alzheimer’s
Researchers have developed a new risk index tool that can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Differential characteristics are pointed out in the image of the comparison of a normal aged brain (top) and an Alzheimer’s brain (bottom). “This new risk index could be very important [...]
Delirium Accelerates Cognitive and Memory Decline in Alzheimer’s
According to research, Alzheimer’s disease patients who have an episode of delirium are significantly more likely to experience rapid cognitive decline and memory loss than Alzheimer’s patients who didn’t experience delirium. Delirium often develops in elderly patients during hospitalization or serious illness, and this acute state of confusion and agitation has long been suspected of [...]
Scientist Develops Blood Test to Predict Chances of Dementia
After Alzheimer’s, frontal lobe dementia (FTD) is the form of dementia that occurs most frequently in patients younger than 65. In FTD, the disease process starts in the frontal lobe where large numbers of brain cells begin to die off. The frontal lobe is the foremost part of the brain and constitutes about 30% of [...]
Pain Relievers Increase Risk of Alzheimer’s in Elderly
According to researchers, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as the pain relievers ibuprofen and naproxen, do not prevent Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Instead, the risk of developing dementia in the study’s very elderly population (most were over age 83 when they developed dementia) was 66 percent higher among heavy NSAID users than among [...]
Soybean Product Natto Has Potential to Prevent Amyloid in Alzheimer’s
A vegan food renowned in Asia for its ability to protect against heart attacks also shows a powerful ability in lab experiments to prevent formation of the clumps of tangled protein involved in Alzheimer’s, scientists in Taiwan are reporting. Rita P. Y. Chen and colleagues point out that people in Asia have been eating natto, [...]
Molecule’s Neuroprotective Role Offers New Insights for Alzheimer’s
New research suggests that a neuronal growth factor receptor, which has long been suspected to facilitate the toxic effects of beta amyloid in Alzheimer’s, actually protects the neuron in the periphery from beta amyloid-induced damage. The receptor molecule in question, a protein better known as p75, regulates neuronal growth, survival, and degeneration, and guides nerve [...]
